Like most photographers, I have found that digital photography has
added to my creativity and has given me more control over the final output
of my images. But with that added creativity and control has come more
responsibility for understanding what is happening at each stage of the
digital process. Most of it involves dealing with the nuances of color
management. Enter Tim Grey. His book, Color Confidence, The Digital
Photographer's Guide to Color Management, has become, for me, my bible for
working with profiles, optimization and output.

Color Confidence is well laid out, discussing the nature of light and
color and color profiles to start. Understanding color profiles perhaps is
the most important lesson Grey gives the reader: "Color values stored
in an image can be thought of as instructions for the device that will
display or reproduce these colors. The profile translates these values so
that they have specific color meaning and allow consistent colors to be
produced by a wide range of devices."

With this foundation, he speaks specifically to Photoshop CS setups and
what settings, modes and warnings should be enabled. Profiles and
calibrations for monitors are well detailed, walking through the process
for choosing monitors and display adapters. Several calibration software
packages are reviewed: Color Vision Spyder and Spyder Pro, Gretag Macbeth
Eye-One Display and MonacoOPTIX, as well as Adobe Gamma and DisplayMate.
Scanners are also covered in some detail, including flatbed and film
scanners. Optimizing the scanner color management through two different
approaches is outlined.

Grey goes over digital capture in some detail. From features to look
for in basic camera settings to RAW capture and conversion and working
space issues, good ideas and good working habits are provided. His writing
style makes it easy to understand the point he is trying make and he gives
the reader specific settings to get them on their way to successful color
management. Many times, he suggests making an adjustment to an extreme
degree just to see what is truly happening for that control. By then
backing down the adjustment, you can fine tune your image.

Optimizing your image allows you to produce an accurate depiction of
your image data. It is easy to get caught up in the process of your
color-managed workflow. Grey suggests that you continue to look at images
with a critical eye. Carefully evaluating the image on your monitor before
you print it will ensure that you are getting everything you intended. He
is quick to point out, however, that color management is not a perfect
science. He prefers instead to call it "predictive." Because of
the inherent differences in media, exact reproduction is impossible, i.e.,
monitors emit light while prints reflect it. Being able to anticipate what
your final print will look like based on your monitor display is the final
objective.

Color adjustments are discussed in detail. Using Levels, Curves and
targeting neutral values, Grey walks the reader through removing color
casts and achieving accurate color balance. The book has many pictorial
examples as well as showing menus and dialog boxes with specific settings.
Color adjustment for black-and-white images may sound incongruous, but
Grey recommends using the RGB mode for working with black-and-white
because you will have more flexibility with more information that can
allow for greater detail and quality in the final print.

A discussion of file formats and retaining all the layers of your
adjustments concludes the optimization section and ensures that your image
is saved with an embedded profile for use with your selected output
method.
According to Grey: "Your goal is have the final display look the way
you want it to look." Be it a print, a web page, digital projection
or anything else, your preparation with color management will result in
the quality of your final output. Most photographers think of the printed
image when they think output. The quality of the printer, therefore, is an
important part of attaining that quality image. Issues of output size, ink
type, number of inks, ink droplet size, resolution, media support and
software capabilities are considered.

Printer profiles provide the same translations of color values as
monitor profiles do. Printer profiles, however, will be more varied not
only because of the different models of printers (and individual printers
within a particular model), but because of the types of ink and paper
combinations used. Different paper surfaces absorb inks differently,
resulting in variations in appearance. Several categories of profiles
exist: canned, generic, commercial and custom. Creating your own custom
printer profile is outlined step by step, including some software tools
available to help build those profiles.

Preparing your images after they have been optimized is the next step.
Soft proofing and gamut warnings are tools to use to get a
"preview" of what your printed image will look like. Before
committing the ink or the paper, you can make further adjustments based on
the proofs. Once you have perfected the image, Grey suggests saving the
file as your master image file. From this master, you will duplicate the
image. This is when you will flatten the layers, resize for intended
output, set target black and white values and sharpen for output.

Finally, you are ready to send your image to the printer. Using the
Print with Preview feature, you get the opportunity to select your printer
properties, including your printer profiles. Grey also covers outputting
to CMYK, web, email and digital slideshows.

The last chapter of the book is a step-by-step workflow, incorporating
all the components discussed above. I know I will be referring to that
workflow, and thumbing back through the various chapters as I work with my
images. Color Confidence is a great resource that I recommend be on any
digital photographer's desk.

If you are like me, you may be astounded at how comprehensive Adobe's
photo editing program Photoshop CS is. Perhaps overwhelmed is a better
word. It certainly allows you to correct, manipulate, enhance - in short,
do anything to -- an image.

But you've worked with Photoshop for awhile and have some basic
questions. There are books out there that explain how to work with the
Layers palette, or how to use the painting tools, or that show how each of
Photoshop's 102 filters look on the same image. But where do you go for
the basic "what are good starting settings for the Unsharp Mask
filter"? Scott Kelby, editor-in-chief and co-founder of Photoshop
User magazine, has written just the book for you. The Photoshop CS Book
for Digital Photographers is a great book for the "how-to"
lessons you have been looking for.

Kelby calls this a "jump-in-anywhere" book because he didn't
write it as a "build-on-what-you-learned-Chapter-1" type of
book. And it is just that. It is very well laid out with a topic and
descriptive paragraph about a particular problem to be solved. Step by
step procedures, with menu and image illustrations, are laid out to get a
problem resolved. He gives his recommended specific settings and shows
before and after results.

This is a Photoshop book, not just a digital photography book. It
doesn't cover "what digital camera or printer to buy" and it
doesn't explain every aspect of every dialog box. There are few books out
there that give actual settings for a particular menu. Kelby presents it
the way digital photographers really work - in the order they work -
starting with sorting and categorizing, working through optimizing the
image, to presenting your images to your clients.

And while this may sound like it is too advanced for you, it really
isn't. As Kelby explains a technique, you may realize that "hey, I
can do that." For instance, he may show you how to use the Healing
Brush to completely remove wrinkles, and most users will do just that -
remove all the wrinkles.

The advanced Photoshop user will know that the 79-year old man's face
should still have some wrinkles in it. So Kelby goes that "extra
mile" and shows you how to duplicate a layer and lower the Opacity,
to bring back some of the original wrinkles from the layer underneath.
It's not hard, it's just understanding that line of thinking.

As you read through the various techniques presented in this book, you
will undoubtedly find one or two (or several!) gems that will be worth the
price of the book. Trust me, I have!!